Artist News Legal

Katy Perry and co get $10 million in punitive damages in convent case

By | Published on Tuesday 5 December 2017

Katy Perry

Katy Perry and her best buds over at the Archdiocese Of Los Angeles have been handed $10 million in punitive damages in the long-running legal dispute over the pop star’s attempt to buy a former convent in LA.

As previously reported, Perry agreed a deal with the Archdiocese Of Los Angeles to purchase the property back in 2015. However, shortly afterwards, restaurateur Dana Hollister agreed a deal with two of the nuns who previously lived in the property to buy it for a slightly higher amount.

There was then a legal battle over which deal should stand. The case went through various court tussles, before a ruling was made in Perry’s favour. Though the Vatican still needs to sign off on the purchase, and Hollister reckons that she might still have a chance of getting her hands on the property by lobbying the Pope.

Meanwhile, Perry, Hollister and God’s Californian representatives were back in court last month. Perry and the Archdiocese wanted Hollister to reimburse them the millions of dollars in legal fees they had spent in fighting the case, on the basis that, as the restaurateur already owns a former convent, she would have been well aware that she would need approval from the Archdiocese, not the nuns, to buy the building. And therefore, it was alleged, she had gone the nuns route in a bid to scupper Perry’s deal.

Perry and the Archdiocese won that legal battle too, and yesterday the matter was back in court yet again so that a jury could consider punitive damages, in addition to the $5 million in legal fees Hollister had already been ordered to hand over.

And, according to Courthouse News, those punitive damages are considerable. The $10 million will be split so that two thirds goes to the archdiocese and the sisters who previously occupied the convent, while a third will go to the company Perry set up in order to buy the property.



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